


Alternative Notations for Genderswaps and Rule!63

by DustySoul



Category: Fandom - Fandom, No Fandom
Genre: Gender Issues, Genderswap, Other, Rule 63, rule!63
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-03
Updated: 2015-09-03
Packaged: 2018-04-18 20:26:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4719317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DustySoul/pseuds/DustySoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Always-a-girl! is a transphobic notation. Here is some information about it and proposed alternatives to standardized how we refer to changing the sex and/or gender of fictional characters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alternative Notations for Genderswaps and Rule!63

#### 

#### Background:

This type of character notation came from bang paths and would have been very useful in fannish hubs where putting spaces between tags (the kind you search for not the kind you rant in) was not possible. ([1](http://allthingslinguistic.com/post/95133324733/hey-whats-up-with-the-in-fandoms-ie)) This would have been before AO3 and LJ, which you can read more about here  ~~([2](http://dusty-soul.tumblr.com/search/fandom+history))~~.*

This notation remains popular in [kinkmemes](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Kinkmeme)**. It is almost exclusively used in the title of prompt posts because kinkmemes, especially the most active ones, are read by skimming through pages and pages of prompt titles either looking for prompts to fill, follow, or both. This format presents the relevant amount of information in the least amount of characters. (Which is important because too long prompt titles can be cut off and of course, make it difficult to read quickly.)

The specific background for[ always-a-girl! (3)](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Always_a_girl) seems to be unclear. [Saathi1013](http://saathi1013.tumblr.com/) speculates that it didn’t start out as being transphobic, that it originally was meant to distinguish from “suddenly-a-girl” or “magically-a-girl” fics when those were more popular or even the norm -or from a fandom circle where that was the case. It then slipped into it’s different usage when it traversed fandom time and spaces and the original meaning was skewed.

In the kinkmeme’s I frequent it seems that always-a-girl! has come to mean cisgirl. Since the part which is important to the prompt isn’t actually that the character has always been a girl (though this is the case) but that the character has always been a  _cisgender_  girl. Sometimes the interpretation of this phrase by the prompter can be inferred by mentioning things like always-a-girl![Character] has been sexually harassed since they were ten or mentioning the character menstruating.***, ****, *****

This is transphobic because using always-a-girl! to denote cisgenderness implies that trans people have not always been the gender that they identify with. While this is true for some trans individuals it is not true for all or even most trans people. Society wants to assume that trans people were a gender before transitioning and another gender after jumping through different hoops and changing their presentation to  _become_ who they really are instead of their actual gender being treated as an innate and natural part of their identity like it is for cisgender people. This is invalidating for all trans people including those who can’t transition do to medical or monetary reasons, don’t want to transition, or don’t want to transition the way society wants them to, as well as those who have already transitioned and who identify their pre-transition self as also being trans and their current gender.  

In describing all trans people this way it perpetuates the belief that they are not  _really_  the gender they identify as (or not really that gender until they get  _the surgery_ and go on hormones and go through voice training and so on). It is an untrue distinction between trans gender identities and cisgender identities that invalidates one by implying  _well, if you were really a girl, wouldn’t you always have been one?_

So, without further ado, here is what I propose fandom uses instead and it is what I will use in my own fics and recs.

 

#### Transcription:

  
**Cisgirl!** (Character)      **Cisboy!** (Character)  
**Transgirl!** (Character)  **Transboy!** (Character)

 **Non-binary!** (Character)  
     **Nonbinary-[AFAB](http://theroguefeminist.tumblr.com/post/52665488573/what-does-faab-mean-i-keep-seeing-it-but-i-have)!** (Character)  **Nonbinary-[AMAB](http://theroguefeminist.tumblr.com/post/52665488573/what-does-faab-mean-i-keep-seeing-it-but-i-have)!** (Character)  
     **Nonbinary![AFAB](http://theroguefeminist.tumblr.com/post/52665488573/what-does-faab-mean-i-keep-seeing-it-but-i-have)!** (Character)  **Nonbinary![AMAB](http://theroguefeminist.tumblr.com/post/52665488573/what-does-faab-mean-i-keep-seeing-it-but-i-have)!** (Character)

 **Intersex![AFAB](http://theroguefeminist.tumblr.com/post/52665488573/what-does-faab-mean-i-keep-seeing-it-but-i-have)!** (Character)       **Intersex![AMAB](http://theroguefeminist.tumblr.com/post/52665488573/what-does-faab-mean-i-keep-seeing-it-but-i-have)!** (Character)  
**Intersex![AMAB](http://theroguefeminist.tumblr.com/post/52665488573/what-does-faab-mean-i-keep-seeing-it-but-i-have)!Girl!** (Character)  **Intersex![AFAB](http://theroguefeminist.tumblr.com/post/52665488573/what-does-faab-mean-i-keep-seeing-it-but-i-have)!Boy!(** Character)

 **Magically-a-Girl** !(Character) or  **Suddenly-a-Girl!** (Character)       
**Magically-a-Boy!** (Character) or **Suddenly-a-Boy!** (Character)

 **Girl!(** Character)  **Boy!** (Character)

 

#### Explanation and Examples:

 Cisgirl! and Cisboy! would refer to taking a cisgender character of one gender and changing them so they are a cisgender character of another gender. For example John Watson being Joan Watson. Elementary is a cisswap with cisgirl!John.

Transgirl! and Transboy! would be taking a cisgender character and making them trans. Transgirls! Vanessa and Karen have both repeatedly come up on the daredevil kinkmeme. And here is a post about how ACD Sherlock Holmes could be a transwoman ([4](http://dusty-soul.tumblr.com/post/80355397452/annethecatdetective-rejohnson53#notes)).

Non-binary! is already used though not commonly seen. The default seems to be to leave the characters designated gender at birth the same as it is in the show which is why I created two formats to specify that this character is AFAB when they were AMAB or vice versa.

Magically-a-Girl! and Suddenly-a-Boy! both notations are for those fics where because of magic, shenanigans, or hijinks a character’s body changes sex without a change in gender.

I don’t think that there needs to be an alternative to always-a- because in my fandom circles always-a- is the default and does not need to be specified (which is why the usage of the phrase has become transphobic over time). I suspect because of the versatility of plots available when a gender swap is not caused by shenanigans this will always-a- will be a default in fandom as a whole. There may be some pockets where alway-a- is not the norm but they can either be noted in some other way in the header or post. Like how this non-binary!Foggy prompt doesn’t use that notation. ([5](https://daredevilkink.dreamwidth.org/725.html?thread=973013#cmt973013))

I have never actually seen a request for an intersex character in a kinkmeme. *** *** However, I think having a preset for how to request such a character is important. Which is why I created these. The top set note an intersex character who was assigned a gender at birth without specifying if that character accepts or agrees with that gender. The bottom notes the character disagrees. Boy! and Girl! in the end can also be replaced with Non-Binary! (Not shown.)

These are the possible genderswaps I can think of. It may be that when trans characters become more popular in the media more types of gender swapping will occur and need names (and may even be called transphobic, as you wouldn’t write a white!Rhody). But that’s a battle for another day. Right now fandom needs a standardized way to refer to gender swaps and rule!63 characters that is respectful of trans people and rather self explanatory instead of relying on obscure internet references and in jokes.  

 

#### Thanks to…:

 The chatters at[ antidiogenes ](https://www.tumblr.com/new/antidiogenes.tumblr.com)who I first talked to about this and filled in a lot of background information about how the original notation works across fandom and how long it has been in use. (Earliest estimate, if I remember correctly, was 5 years in the BBC Sherlock fandom.)

And also special thanks to Saathi1013 for talking to me about this, filling in some important information about the history and need for words like these. As well as some really cool speculation on how words in fandom migrate and transform.

#### Footnotes:

  * ~~Sorry that page is so messy, I haven’t condensed my tags “fandom history” and “history of fandom” or even tagged all the relevant posts period~~. Since I accidentally deleted my blog this tag has nothing in it. Which is very sad. But since I still love posts about the history of fandom, especially early internet fandom that was before my time, it will be up eventually. And I’ll edit this post when I have it sorted. It was almost the same for the post in that “(1)” but all you have to do to find it is google “phys!Steve” and it’s the first result.
  * <http://fanlore.org/wiki/Kinkmeme>
  * Trangirls can be sexually harassed at young ages. What I’m trying to point out here is that having transitioned at a young age and then being harassed is described differently and has a different impact on the character than what is being described in these prompts.
  * I feel it is rude to link to specific prompts in the kinkmeme I am talking about, but you can some how search this page for the phrase if you like: <https://delicious.com/daredevilkink>
  * As some of you may remember I originally mistook “always-a-girl” for transgirl when hand scraping data for this kinkmeme. That was because I was only reading the titles and the titles did not provide any indication that the phrase meant something other than what I assumed it to mean based on my own experience of being trans.
  * When I last posted this it was pointed out that Loki from Avengers is written and requested as intersex! fairly often. I don’t like Loki from the movies much at all, though I see why other people do. I don’t hate him or anything, I just don’t go out of my way to read things with him in it. I also don’t frequent the Avengers kinkmeme that much so. Yeah, that’s why. I am aware that they are out there and probably getting more popular. It’s just not happening in my circles yet.



#### Works Cited URLS:

  1. <http://allthingslinguistic.com/post/95133324733/hey-whats-up-with-the-in-fandoms-ie>
  2. ~~<http://dusty-soul.tumblr.com/search/fandom+history>~~
  3. <http://fanlore.org/wiki/Always_a_girl>
  4. <http://dusty-soul.tumblr.com/post/80355397452/annethecatdetective-rejohnson53#notes>
  5. <https://daredevilkink.dreamwidth.org/725.html?thread=973013#cmt973013>
  6. AMAB and AFAB <http://theroguefeminist.tumblr.com/post/52665488573/what-does-faab-mean-i-keep-seeing-it-but-i-have>



#### Author’s Notes:

I am trans non-binary myself. If any other trans people want to weigh in on this topic I welcome it. 

I am also not intersex, so if any intersex fans have issues or find problematic my choice of notation, please let me know so I can edit and single boost the preferred language. Which is the entire point of this post after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to message or follow me on tumblr at dusty-soul.tumblr.com


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